I've Been Jumping From the Tops of Buildings (This Providence)
by Reader's Inflammation
Summary: Imagine person A is feeling suicidal because they feel that no one would even care if they died.


Cecil sighed as he watched the far-off cars travelling down Route 800. There wasn't any wind, which was nice. If he could have, he would have stayed there all day long, sitting on the windowsill of the abandoned StrexCorp building, feeling like it was a million stories up.

Looking down at his phone, Cecil felt like he was acting selfishly being there, considering what he was about to do. How could he go through with this without a second thought? Without telling anyone what happened to him?

He couldn't call Dana, though. She would just start worrying and freaking out. When he thought about it, he couldn't call any of his friends for this same reason. And he couldn't call his family because he didn't remember them and had no idea where they were, if they were even still alive.

Cecil finally decided to just type in a random number. He made sure to get one that turned blue, indicating that it was on iMessage so that he knew that it was a real number.

Then, he typed out, _Hello, you don't know who I am and I don't know you are either, but I'm about to jump off of a building, and I feel Iike I should tell someone what will happen to me._

Cecil sent the message and gently set his phone down on the sill and leaned his head back slightly. Suddenly, his phone vibrated. But it wasn't indicating a text message. Someone was calling him. The screen said 'Unknown Number'.

"Hello?" he answered, his voice breaking slightly at the end.

"Please back away from the edge," a firm voice told him from down the line.

"Why would I do that?" Cecil asked sadly, yet very confused.

"Please, just don't jump. Please. I don't know you, but you can't do this. I won't let you," the man told him and took a deep breath before asking, "What's your name?"

Cecil mimicked his breaths, breathing in slowly and letting it out after a few seconds.

"Cecil," he told him at last.

"Hi Cecil. I'm Carlos," he said softly.

"Hi Carlos. I'm sorry, but why did you call me?" Cecil asked in confusion.

"I don't want you to jump. And I didn't think that you would answer a text, so I called you instead," Carlos explained. "Please, just back away from the edge and talk to me."

After a minute of silence between them Cecil slowly brought his legs back into the room and sat down at the dusty desk inside the office.

"I'm not on the edge anymore," he told Carlos softly.

"Where are you?" Carlos asked. Cecil hesitated, but eventually sighed and told him.

"The abandoned StrexCorp building. I'm on the top floor. The roof was locked for some reason."

Cecil heard something slam. "Carlos? What was that?"

"It was nothing; just a door. What are you doing now?"

"I'm sitting at a desk in this office."

"There's still furniture in that old building?" Carlos sounded out of breath and Cecil could hear shuffling from his end of the conversation.

"Yeah, in some of the offices," Cecil told him quietly.

"And what office are you in? With the furniture?" Carlos asked. Cecil was confused by the reason behind the question, but told him the office number anyways.

There was silence for a minute, but Cecil could hear Carlos breathing somewhat loudly. When he couldn't stand the silence anymore, Cecil called the stranger's name. Carlos didn't answer and then the call disconnected, successfully breaking Cecil's heart and his last hope.

Before he could get back up onto the windowsill, however, Cecil heard a voice call his name from inside the building. He was startled by it, but he stood up and walked around the desk, curious as to who else would be in the building, and how they would know that he was there. For some reason, Cecil recognized the voice, even though it sounded a bit different.

" _Carlos?_ " Cecil asked, suddenly figuring it out. He realized that he had whispered the name under his breath, so he called it out again, a little louder this time. "Carlos?"

"Cecil?" he heard answer his call with the sound of running feet.

A man burst into the office and came to a complete stop. Cecil was taken aback, finally able to put a face to the voice and the name.

"What—what are you doing here?" Cecil asked. But Carlos didn't answer. Instead, he just closed the space between him and Cecil, throwing his arms around the man's shoulders, almost toppling both of them over.

"Oh thank god, Cecil. I was so worried about you," Carlos whispered.

"Why? You just met me, Carlos."

"I know, but I like you already," Carlos said as he pulled away from Cecil, but keeping his hands on the man's shoulder's. After a minute of silence, Carlos asked Cecil if he was ready to leave, to which Cecil agreed. They both walked down to Carlos's car and got inside.

After a short ride back to Carlos's apartment, they both got out of the car and walked into the building.

"I'm not taking my eyes off of you," Carlos told him, almost jokingly, but Cecil knew that it wasn't. And, for some reason, he was okay with that.

* * *

Imagine person A is feeling suicidal because they feel that no one would even care if they died. Looking down from the place that they intend to jump from, they decide to give the world a final chance to prove someone cares by dialing a random number on their phone. If no one answers, they will jump. The number they dial just so happens to be person B's number. How person B reacts to person A's explanation is up to you.

* * *

Fic based on do-it-for-the-gay's "The 38th Floor";  post/118997035579/the-38th-floor


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